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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Why, yes, I think we are! The sign was hung in the window of our new VW Golf from Medicine Hat. I'm still a little stunned at having a new vehicle, but we're both really happy with it. It's super fun to drive, really roomy, very quite, very comfortable, has lots of pep, gets great gas mileage...etc, etc, etc.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Last weekend I went to Vancouver to see my parents and visit my grandmothers. I flew in from Regina on Thursday and when my parents picked me up at the airport we went and did a bit of shopping right off the bat before heading back to the campground where my parents had parked the trailer. On Friday we went to Pitt Meadows to see my Nana, Da's mum. She's going to be 95 this August. She seemed quite pleased to see us all.

After visiting with Nana, we went to have supper at my Auntie Valerie's house. It was lovely to see her, as I haven't seen her in roughly 5 years as well. She was very nice and welcoming, but refused to be in any pictures. So, it's just photos of me and Mum and Da. On Saturday we went to see my Gramma, Mum's mum. The facility she's in is gorgeous and her window looks out onto the courtyard and fountain. We spent the afternoon playing BINGO, which was a hoot.

That's right, I won a game! Four corners.~

Since it's been so long since I saw either of them, I was expecting the worst, but was actually pleasantly surprised. It was an exhausting whirl-wind trip, but I'm glad I had the chance to go (thank you to my parents and their Airmiles!)

Oh, and a picture of me and Gus on the fold out couch bed that I slept on in the trailer. He was quite pleased when Mum folded it down and was pretty sure it was meant for him.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Thank you very much for the new mattress. It was such a relief to find that a large international company such as yourselves will still take the steps to honour a warranty. It doesn't bother me at all that the bed which we spent over a thousand dollars on when we were right out of college and living in a basement appartment only got 3 good years out of it, followed by over a year and a half of back trouble and finally another 7 months of not being slept on. Of course this is not the sort of thing that happens often, what with the stunning 10 year warranty you advertise with your beds. A lengthy warranty like that brings to mind beds that last longer than the owner wishes to have them, which I'm completely positive is exactly what Seally produces.So I'm sure you can imagine our surprise when the sides of the bed bulged, the middle sagged, and the "Eurotop" disconnected from the mattress. Thankfully though, Seally has that 10 year warranty to assist in these awkward and unexpected situations.I sincerely appreciate the assistance your sales representatives provided to me over the span of 7 months from the time of my initial call to the furniture store in Saskatoon where we purchased our bed in June of 2005. I can also completely understand how there would be no one to return my calls when your sales representative for the province of Saskatchewan quit and did not follow through with her final calls back in October. I certainly have no hard feelings towards your regional sales manager in Edmonton who repeatedly called a phone number in Rosetown despite clearly being told several times that the number is out of service and that we don't live in that town anymore and haven't for 3 years. Rest assured, Seally, this doesn't sound at all like an excuse. It's very understandable that this sales manager would be reluctant to send any other sales representatives to see my dilapadated mattress in Swift Current, being that we are "so remote". Absolutely. That large highway that runs straight through it...what's it called again? Oh yes, the TransCanada Highway. It has definitely done nothing to connect Swift Current to the rest of the country. It's understandable to have that perspective all the way over there in Edmonton. I certainly wouldn't want to put anyone out of their way just for the benefit of my sleep.

I also greatly appreciate having the "do-it-yourself" warranty kit sent to me at our previous address in Rosetown (which, as I said, we haven't lived at in three years). A new warranty kit was received a couple of weeks later and I can absolutely understand why a large company such as yourself would want to set such strict regulations on warranty claims to make it a little difficult for people to claim warranty...you wouldn't want to make it too easy and have just anyone getting a free mattress when their bed failed to withstand the test of a couple of years. I'm sure you can understand my reluctance towards filling out the warranty card information when the problems my bed seemed to have didn't fit into the descriptions (the sagging wasn't "at least 1.5" deep when measured with a ruler and broomstick).

It was such a relief to find that my emails (I'll admit they may have sounded just a touch frustrated at this point) to customer service were responded to immediately and that, despite a change in policy, you were willing to send a sales representative to my home to look at my mattress herself. I can understand why you would have denied my request at first, scolding me for not purchasing my mattress in a furniture store (though I did), and there is nothing suspicious about your regional sales manager stating that he had been confused and had been emailing ANOTHER Jessica in Swift Current with a bed problem who also wanted a home inspection as well (my isn't is a small world afterall!!).

It was no trouble waiting for your brand new Saskatchawn customer service representative to plan a day to come to Swift Current. The meeting was brief and she acknowledged the bed was certainly defective. I certainly wasn't concerned that she would have any preconceived notions of what "kind of customer" I would be from her supervisor forwarding my emails to her. No, I am certain she viewed me from a totally non-biased position.

Imagine my delight when she called me a week later and told me they would credit my bed at a furniture store in town! How exciting! I understood from very early on that the credit for a bed warranty was an ammount that would allow the customer to purchase the today-equivalent to the bed that was being warrantied. This was excellent news! Our bed was quite good (prior to it's total deterioration). So Brad and I went off to the furniture store and looked at mattresses with a very helpful woman who gave us the ins and outs of Seally mattresses. We decided on one that felt and appeared very similar to what we had before. Imagine our disappointment when we found the credit from Seally was $649, an amount that would not cover the ful cost of their lowest end mattress (which was certainly not what we bought 5 years ago). We learned the mattress we wanted would cost an extra $150, plus tax on the entire mattress at $79, plus the cost of a mattresspad at $99 that would allow us to be eligible to receive the 10 year warranty again, should this unlikely event ever happen again.

But don't worry Seally, we weren't at all put off by having to pay an extra $320 for a new bed only 5 years after "investing" in a mattress that would "last a lifetime". No no, we don't have any hard feelings at all and are sleeping peacfully on our new mattress completely confident that we will never have to deal with this again.

Thank you so very very much for all of your speedy assistance in this matter,A Passive Agressive Future Serta Customer.

Monday, May 03, 2010

This evening Brad and I were looking at our littel greenhouse and realized somewhere along the way it got turned around and we've been looking at it backwards. Which means the little shoots that I thought were his (that are doing so well) are my little pansies! YAY! (and take THAT Brad with you little teeny sprouts!!).

Brad and I decided to be ambitious this year and attempt to grow some of our own plants, so we bought a little plastic greenhouse and he planted some peppers and tomatoes. I had taken the seeds from my portulaca, marigolds, and pansies last year (I only took the seeds from the pretty coloured ones) and saved them in sandwich ziplocks for the winter. We planted the seeds into our greenhouse about two weeks ago and waited impatiently. Brad's started poking up first much to my disgruntlement. But this weekend some of my wee little flowers started to appear! Now we're just about neck and neck for who has the most growing!

I think this one is a marigold. (actually, it's one of Brad's peppers)~

This is Brad's. BOOOOO Brad! (correction: I have just discovered this is mine! Yay!!)